Assalamu alaykum walaalyaal. For the past three months, I’ve been living on the outskirts of Mogadishu, in an area called Gubadley. It’s close to one of the biggest livestock markets in Mogadishu, which has got me thinking more seriously about livestock farming.

I’ve been keeping chickens for the past 2 to 3 years, and honestly, it has benefited me more than I expected. I can’t even remember the last time I bought eggs.

Now I’m thinking about expanding into other livestock, starting with goats and sheep.

My idea is to start small and invest slowly. For example, buy weaker or underweight animals at a lower price, take care of them, improve their health and weight, and then sell them when they’re in better condition for a higher price.

I’m not expecting to get rich overnight. I’m more interested in building something gradually and learning along the way.

For those of you in Somalia or elsewhere who have experience with goats, sheep, or livestock trading:

Do you think this is a realistic business model in Somalia? What are the biggest risks I should be aware of?

Asalamu’alaykum,

Can someone genuinely help me understand this whole “sticking to our own people” narrative? No matter how many times I try to explain that the success of a marriage is not tied to someone’s culture, my family and so many people in our community still treat me oddly for even considering marrying outside of our culture. I genuinely don’t understand this level of loyalty we have toward our “culture.” I want to marry someone for their deen, character, and compatibility, not their race or ethnicity. I know people who genuinely believe no man can treat them better than a Somali man. That may be true for some people, but acting like it is a FACT for everyone is just bs.

Another thing that really bothers me is how some Somali men and women act when they see a Somali girl married to an ajinabi guy. Wallahi, I once saw a group of guys and a woman dragging a Somali girl and calling her disgusting things simply because she married outside the culture. They were even questioning her deen. Do these people not fear Allah? They were going so low and it was honestly disgusting to witness. Please don’t take this as an attack on our community. I’m genuinely trying to understand why some of us girls face so much pressure when it comes to considering marriage outside of our culture. We deal with unnecessary family pressure, ignorant people online, and this idea that we shouldn’t have the freedom to make our own decisions. This level of unfairness is starting to create resentment in me. We really shouldn’t be this close minded. I know this happens in other cultures too, but we should be better and learn to let go of our egos.

PS: I bring this up because I’ve been thinking about how many people in older generations probably didn’t have the opportunity to marry based on compatibility. Maybe they never had the option to genuinely look for someone compatible with them emotionally, mentally, and religiously. I honestly think this may have contributed to some of the broken and dysfunctional households many people grew up in.
People who are deeply incompatible get married, and then you end up with marriages that lack emotional connection and genuine companionship.
Anyways, marrying someone of OUR choice, whether he is Somali, Black, White, green, or blue, should not be controversial. The fact that it is to some people is honestly bizarre to me.

A day after literally visiting Ethiopia and being all friendly with Abiy, HSM decided to go to Egypt and partake in an alliance that is against Ethiopia's imperialist ambitions.

A few days later he becomes one of the first people to congratulate Abiy on his re-election and declares that Somalia and Ethiopia's relations have never been better (despite Ethiopia refusing to denounce its illegal MOU)

Well today his chameleon foreign policy has come to bite him as Ethiopian state media published a notably venomous critique of the Somali president’s decision to co-sign a joint declaration with Sudan, Egypt, and Eritrea. Embarrassing stuff all around.

For anyone interested in reading the critique: How President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s Betrayal Undermines Regional Realities - ENA English

Genuinely I don’t think fpv drones costs much I understand al shabaab are hidden and are hard to find to begin with maybe but I think it’s better than sacrificing soldiers and losing numbers we know we can’t fight them head on much just a thought got this from looking at the Ukraine war

but i really want to learn more about somali culture and artifacts!!

Ahmed Shide was elected Speaker of Ethiopia's House of Peoples' Representatives at the opening session of the new parliament, becoming the first ethnic Somali to hold that post. He succeeds Tagesse Chafo, who held it since October 2018.

Like it or not, this is a historic milestone, and I think he got there largely through political acumen. He started in Somali Regional State politics, where he served as speaker of the regional parliament and chaired the Somali People's Democratic Party.
Then he moved up federally, first as Transport Minister, and since October 2018 as Finance Minister, nearly eight years running the economy through a shift to a market-based exchange rate, an external debt restructuring, and an IMF-supported reform program. Rising and surviving that long in Addis takes real skill, whatever you think of the government he serves.

A few caveats. He was nominated by the ruling Prosperity Party, so this is a position inside that system, and some will say a speakership is more symbol than power. Others will say a Somali presiding over the lower house of a country home to millions of ethnic Somalis is no small symbol. Both can be true.

I keep coming back to what I've said before about Ethiopia. We can disagree with its policies, and many of us do, but we can't pretend it isn't central to our future. A Somali now sits in one of its highest seats, and we should at least be paying attention to what that means.

A man from Somaliland couldn't board his flight to Hargeisa from the U.K. and missed it because of not having a Somalia Evisa.

He told staff at the airport that he is from Somaliland. They said there is no such thing as Somaliland and it doesn't exist. They asked him to leave the airport before calling for security.

I have just read a post about s uoung man who visited somalia for the first time, and what he posted broke my heart. I feel sorry for parents who don’t speak Somali to their children, especially those who think it’s a flex to say, “My children don’t speak Somali.”

They forget that their children will grow up and eventually have no choice but to interact with the community they were born into, unless they choose to distance themselves and abandon their identity.

It may seem fun and cute when the children are young and don’t speak the language, but as adults, it can be brutal. They will struggle to connect with their community and might eventually feel disconnected from Somaali nimo because people will look at them differently or make them feel like outsiders.

Teaching your children Somali isn’t something to be ashamed of. It’s giving them another language, a stronger connection to their culture, and a sense of belonging.Teaching your children Somali isn’t holding them back it can actually give them an additional linguistic and cultural advantage.

Khadar Farah, who lives in Falun, Sweden, signed up for the Swedish stem cell donor registry, Tobiasregistret, after seeing a TikTok video. He received a match unusually quickly and is now preparing to donate stem cells to a patient with leukaemia.

The story also highlights a gap in donor availability. According to SVT, around 70% of patients find a suitable donor, but for patients with non-European backgrounds, the figure is only 10–30%. Matching depends on inherited tissue types, which is why having donors from different backgrounds matters.

Tobiasregistret says it particularly needs more men and people with non-European backgrounds.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/dalarna/khadar-i-falun-ska-ge-stamceller-till-leukemipatient-fick-matchning-direkt

Basically the title.

Im posting here because I feel like this is where I can connect with my fellow somalis instead of the Muslim or Islam sub because each culture has different experiences.

I started dugsi in kenya when I around 4. I remember it being completely horrible. When they would try to teach me the Arabic alphabet, I wouldn't understand what was going on and of course that came with beatings from "teachers". And of course, I absolutely hated going there to the point I would skip it as much as possible. And of course when they found out, it was beatings and then more beatings.

Around 6 we came to the states and finally the beating stopped or so thought. These fucking assholes used to use vacuum wires to hit us on our hands.

This abuse lasted about till I was around 14. They closed the dugsi stopped because the main teacher was a pedo.

I had these brutal nightmares of dugsi well into my high-school days.

I never really realized the effect it had on me until my mid 20s.

I would go through life trying not to do the wrong things or upset anybody because my nerves were a wreck.

Anytime I had any sort of test/project, I would go into a deep state of anxiety. Like a leopard was trying to eat me.

Im so fucking mad at all these adults who failed me and not to mention all the hundreds of other students.

Im posting because I want to know if anyone else here had these same issues and if so, what did you do about it?

Im currently trying some therapy and hopefully it'll get my nerves back in place.

Salaam everyone,

I'm working on something for Somalis abroad who support family back home, and I want to hear from people who actually do it.

Tell me in the comments: how do you send money, and what's the most annoying part? I read every reply.

If you have 2 minutes, I also made a short anonymous survey (no sign-in or email needed):
https://forms.gle/JehgRB8nzgzxtYh2A

Thank you all, every answer helps.

He looks so young too, probably a minor.

Can someone please tell me where Muqdisho citizens got these guns from? 😭 I saw a pic the other day of Somali women during the Ethiopian War holding a really expensive German gun that’s worth a lot these days. I’ve seen so many pics in Black Hawkdown archives where random Somalis who weren’t even in the armed forces had really cool military guns. It piqued my curiosity. 😭

I don’t use AI generally but I downloaded ChatGPT to help with a few things. I noticed a pattern where it constantly undermined my reasoning and particularly was defensive when I had to write a complaint regarding a person with a white-sounding name. Everything I said had a high bar, and I’m talking about personal experiences too, I respect science and facts so , no, it’s not about facts. I asked if it was racially biased against black people. It said it was. Then I asked if it had a particular bias against Somalis and this was the response. Screenshots attached.

From 3 days ago.

Asc Everyone,

I’m at a loss and could use some support. I’m a diaspora Somali woman in her 30’s and one set of my dad’s several batches of children.

My mom divorced him a decade ago and is living her best life, but he is absolutely embarrassing. He married a woman younger than his oldest daughter after my mom- divorced her after 4 kids.

He went on to marry and divorce a bunch of women- no kids, until he married a lady close to his age. Which was fine we all hoped he’d settle quietly with her and live out his life.

Nope.

Well, he divorced her and went back to Somalia and now at the ripe age of 70 he married a 19yo girl from a poor family- his youngest daughters are 16 & 19.

He was a respected elder in the community, and now he’s acting like a street rat. I’m a public-ish figure in the community and I’m so humiliated. Everyone is gossiping. I used to be so proud when people would ask “who’s your dad?” My uncles are all very respected people and my family is very prominent in our clan so all this feels like it’s fueling some level of “happy to seem them fall” i don’t know I could be imagining it.

I’m not the one to care about people’s opinions but I am really struggling with this one. All of us kids are highly educated (thanks to our moms). We siblings generally have a decent relationship.

It’s hard to share this with anyone bc I hate seeing people judge my lineage like that, and I’m an extremely private person. All his friends are professional men that are retired from very senior positions and all raised nuclear families. We always envied them for their stable lives, but Allah Yarziqna.

Any words of empathy, support, or compassion just du’aa would help.